Today, March 19, 2017, marks 172 years since Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels woke up to a snow storm in Texas. He was camping at the Guadalupe River getting ready to look over the land that he had just purchased for the Adelsverein emigration project. The date was Wednesday, March 19, 1845. In two days, the first immigrants would cross the Guadalupe into what would become New Braunfels on Good Friday, March 21, 1845. From that time on, that date would be designated as Founder’s Day for New Braunfels.

Prince Carl wrote eleven reports back to the Adelsverein telling them what he had accomplished for the organization that had chosen him to head the project. These eleven reports written in German have been translated by various historians and scholars. The reports have been published in both German and English. The information from these reports has been used by researchers for many years. But, as often is the case, other documents surface that are more personal in nature and sometimes contradictory to the original documents available.

The diary

Historian, Theodore Gish, came across the personal diary of Prince Carl while researching in Rheinland-Platz, Germany. The diary was one of two documents discovered and was called “Diary of a Trip to America in 1844-45.” W.M. Von Maszewski, the past-president of the German–Texas Heritage Society, agreed to translate the diary. The diary consists of 88 pages and begins with Prince Carl’s departure from Rheingrafenstein, his family castle. The date was May 14, 1844. The last entry was upon his return to Europe on June 20, 1845. The diary contains biographical data not found in the Adelsverein reports and contains humanizing comments about his own nature.

In the diary, the prince reveals much about his own personality and how he sees his role as “fearless military leader, mounting a defense against Indians.” This attack never came about. Prince Carl through Gish’s book, reveals himself as an aristocrat who exercised his skill in the arts. Even with the serious responsibility of the emigration project, he took time out to read the classical German authors such as Goethe and Schiller.

Diaries have a way of opening up what the writer really feels about people and places; in this case, much of it is uncomplimentary. Solms praises von Coll but not the rest of the first council that he appointed, particularly Zink. They were Dr. Theodore Koester, Nicholas Zink, von Coll and Rev. Louis Ervendberg. The prince makes some very serious charges against Zink. Also, the prince revealed his anti-American views and why he was against Texas becoming a state of the United States.

Historic background of the diary

Here is the background of the point in time the diary was written:

Prince Carl arrived in Texas on July 1, 1844, and traveled to collect information about Texas. On March 6, he rode on horseback to San Antonio with Friedrich Wrede and Gustav Hoffmann. In San Antonio, Johann Rahm, a member of Texas Ranger Jack Coffee Hays’ Company, told the prince about the Comal Tract and Las Fontanas. On the 15, Prince Carl purchased this tract from heirs of the Veramendi family. On March 18, the prince went to inspect the tract. He was accompanied by 25 men. The group set up tents at the Guadalupe and that night there was a snow storm. They woke up to the snow on their tents. This was March 19, 1845.

Two days later, the first group of German immigrants crossed the Guadalupe at the Camino Real crossing (Nacogdoches Street). A settlement was established called the Zinkenburg located where the Sts, Peter & Paul Catholic Church now stands. In February, Prince Carl had organized a militia to protect the settlers from Indian attack. These men were capable of bearing arms. The total number of men was 208, 36 with rifles, 39 with shotguns and 33 unarmed. On March 21, 1845, the immigrants crossed the Guadalupe.

Excerpts from the diary

February 26, 1845: Arrived at Carlshaven after being lost. Ate oysters and fish.

February 27, 1845: Bad roads to Victoria. Supper with Zink and Wedemeyer. Played the piano.

February 28, 1845: Rode to camp. Joyful welcome with cannon fire. Played the piano. Rain and storm.

March 2, 1845 Birthday of my mother. Departed on the way at 10:00 o’clock. Nice beautiful hilly trail. Met Romer, von Coll, Lűntzel, Hoffmann and Assel on the trail. Supper and grog.

March 3, 1845: Storm and rain. Zink arrives. Lengthy discussion.

March 4, 1845: Colonial Council meeting. Champagne in the evening.

March 6, 1845: A discussion with Dr. Kὂster. He was suspended. Cloudt is becoming uncouth. Baur is less than nothing, very malicious. Too late to ride.

March 7, 1845: Inspection of company. I praised Heidtmeyer because of training them. They need additional training on foot and field.

March 8, 1845: Departed for Gonzales. Supper at Kings. Slept on porch, saddle for pillow. American tobacco, chewing and spitting.

March 9, 1845: Cold norther at the San Jeronimo. 4.5 miles to Don Antonio Navarro’s. Interesting man. He describes the march to Santa Fe. Mr. Veramendi introduces me. Lodging with many fleas and a hard bed of feathers on wood.

March 10, 1845: Waited for Veramendi. He did not come. High ground view of San Antonio. Lodged at Rahm’s favorite old hotel.

March 11, 1845: Looked at the Alamo. Visited Veramendi and Garza.

March 12, 1845: Had discussion with Veramendi and de Vine. Companions were Wrede, Anton, two orderlies from Lindheimer’s company and from the militia of Hoffmann and Lűntzel. Mexicans no longer made brash demands.

March 13, 1845: Completed business with Mexicans. Rode to San Pedro Springs and the Powder House.

March 14, 1845: Completion of the document with Maria Veramendi-Garza, beautiful woman. Rode with Lűntzel and Lindheimer to Mission La Conception.

March 15, 1845: Signed the document.

March 16, 1845: Breakfast along Cibolo. Wrede and Hoffmann arrived in the evening.

March 17, 1845: Zink and Coll arrived with 13 men. Camped at a spring not far from the Guadalupe. Bitterly cold.

March 18, 1845: Arrived on the Comal tract. Put up tents, ate late then went to bed.

March 19, 1845: We awoke to a snowstorm. I rode out to outline the horse exercise area. Afterward I went with Rahm, Wrede, Lűntzel, Zink into the woods, with hunting knives and axes we cut a trail to the spring. 4 miles. Stopped where we came to a meadow. Bitterly cold. Snow on the tents in the morning.

March 20, 1845: With Coll, Lindheimer and five men I went on a long ride through the country. On horseback, we climbed up to an outcropping through cedars to the top of a plateau.

March 21, 1845: Beginning of spring and Good Friday. Crossing of the first 15 wagons, but what toil and what difficulty it was. Finally, they are here. Change of the camp to higher ground.

Diary continues

Prince Carl’s diary continues through the time he left New Braunfels on May 14 and then left Texas in June for Germany. The book containing this information and much more can be purchased at Sophie’s Shop at the Sophienburg. It is called Voyage to North America 1844-45.

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The year was 1846, a year after Hermann Seele arrived in Texas. It was the time of year that we, in Texas, understand – July and August. The heat continued to increase and thunder storms made the Guadalupe River rise. A ferry boat at the confluence of the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers had washed away. It was again repaired.

Horrifying scene

Seele crossed the river to the place where the immigrants had been held up from crossing over the flooding Guadalupe. A most horrible scene was observed. Some chests and boxes of the immigrants had been brought over with great effort. Baggage and household goods were laying everywhere waiting with the immigrants to cross the swollen water. Wash was laid out on bushes to dry.

An old farmer lying on a feather bed had a raging fever. Not far away the corpse of a woman was wrapped in a bedspread. Small children were sitting around weeping for their dear, dead mother. The father in vain, tried to understand a discussion with the American wagon owner. What was he telling him to do? He couldn’t understand English.

Walking by the gruesome area, Seele noticed a man leaning against a tree with his hat fallen over off of his head. He wanted to warn him about the danger of sun. Seele went up to the man, shook him, and raised his head “which had sunk to his chest when his wide-opened eyes became fixed on me, motionless and unseeing. The man was dead.” He was buried there on the banks of the Guadalupe.

He passed a tent with nine people lying begging for water. No one would bring them any. Seele brought them water from the river in pails. A long-ago song sung by his mother passed through his mind:

Beyond the island and rocks
We have vanished for eternity.
I feel as though I must weep
Must weep like a child.

From The Cypress by Hermann Seele

Many immigrants camped across the Guadalupe River from Seele’s farm. Many were buried there and years later when the railroad came to New Braunfels, workers discovered the bones of the 29 humans recorded by Ervendberg. The workers scraped them up and reburied them. Today trains roll over the site.

Immigrants planned to settle the San Saba

The real original destination of the Adelsverein German immigrants was the land around the San Saba and Llano Rivers. The Adelsverein had a contract with the Republic of Texas to settle up to 6,000 families and single men in this area. They should have known better, but they didn’t. They knew nothing about Texas.

When Prince Carl arrived in the summer of 1844 to make arrangements for the immigrants to travel from the coast to the land grant, this inland trek from the coast was the biggest challenge he had. He made a trip by horseback to the San Saba and decided that the settlers had to have a half-way destination to stop for supplies.

Unplanned destination became New Braunfels

And so, on March 15, 1845 in San Antonio, Prince Carl purchased the land situated on the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers. This land became the inadvertent final destination of the Adelsverein immigrants. Immediately Prince Carl had Lt. Nicholas Zink plot out a town-site. At the west end of this plotted land was a four-acre cemetery named the New Braunfels Cemetery.

Ervendberg records

When the first immigrants arrived, Rev. Louis Ervendberg recorded some 400 deaths, most of which were buried in the New Braunfels Cemetery in 1845 and 1846. An unnumbered amount of burials took place at the coast and on the side of the road of the trek up from the coast. There are no records to show the exact number or who died at the coast and on the way to New Braunfels. Rev. Ervendberg began his recordings by word of mouth from arriving settlers and it is estimated that 300 or so died at the coast and along the way. He recorded 21 deaths in 1845 and 373 in 1846.

New Braunfels Cemetery

This city cemetery was the first provided for immigrants and dedicated June 25, 1845. The first person buried there was Elise Catherine Reh Peter. Her husband, Gerlach Peter, died a month later. It is presumed that they were victims of a cholera epidemic that was just beginning at this time. Records show that many were buried in nameless graves on the southwest section of the cemetery. Over two hundred deaths recorded by Ervendberg were buried in the New Braunfels Cemetery.

The First Protestant Church is the custodian of those death records. The church has allowed the Sophienburg Archives to copy the records. The records show the name, date of death, age, birthplace, place of burial and cause of death of each of the 348 recorded deaths in 1845 and ’46. The causes of death are so varied that it is impossible to draw any conclusions. So many died of convulsions and something called mucus fever, bilious fever, dysentery, blood poisoning and yellow fever. Most of these sound like symptoms rather than the disease itself. Only two concrete diseases have been identified, cholera and spinal meningitis. Towards the heights of the epidemic with several deaths a day, there were no longer coffins available and many were just buried in a mass grave. The area is marked on the grounds of the cemetery.

Whole families of parents and children sometimes died all at once. All age brackets were victims from the very young to the very old. Several women died of childbirth.

By 1847, the numbers of recorded deaths dropped to 71. One may conclude that this particular epidemic was over.

The rest of the story

When John O. Meusebach accepted the responsibility of taking the place of Prince Carl as Executive Director of the Adelsverein, he was full of optimism. After all, the newspapers in Germany had painted a beautiful picture of Texas. But when Meusebach arrived in Texas, he quickly assessed the misery of the immigrants on the coast. He realized the financial disaster and there was no money to help the immigrants survive on the coast or even to help them get to New Braunfels. He was informed that 5,000 more people were on the way.

What was he to do? He appealed to the Adelsverein who sent a meager amount of money. He then explored the land promised the immigrants around the San Saba and Llano Rivers, the original destination.

In April 25, 1846, Meusebach guided 16 wagons and 180 settlers to colonize Fredericksburg. He then made a peace treaty with the Comanche Indians. This opened up the Texas frontier for settlement.

Meusebach remained a popular personality with the immigrants and in 1851 he was elected State Senator. Two years later, he was appointed commissioner for the German Emigration Co. to issue land certificates to the immigrants brought to Texas by the Adelsverein.

The rest of the story is good, thanks to John O. Meusebach.

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